Reacting to the not-guilty verdicts in the Florida boot camp case involving the death of a 14-year old African-American boy, CNN anchor Don Lemon found the result "surprising." And both he and CNN reporter Susan Candiotti made clear that they bought into the prosecution's portrayal of the videotape of the incident.
Just before the verdicts came down, there was this exchange [emphasis added].
DON LEMON: How much of a role did this tape play into [sic] this trial?SUSAN CANDIOTTI: Oh huge. This is the main evidence, isn't it? And as one of the prosecutors said, "there might not be sound on this tape, but it is screaming at you, 'why didn't someone do something?'"
View video here.
Note that by stating "as one of the prosectors said," Candiotti was adopting the prosecutor's argument as her own. After the verdicts were announced, Lemon made clear that he too bought into the prosecutor's version.
LEMON: All of them acquitted. And all of them found "not guilty." Surprising, Susan . . . If you look at this, I mean it's, ah, the tape is quite disturbing, and as you said, you can't hear, there's no sound on the tape, but it just sort of screams at you.
Lemon went on to suggest that the jurors' race might explain the verdict.
LEMON: Earlier, when I asked you about the racial component, I think the only racial component in this was that the jury was all-white, mostly white in this case, and they [who?] were concerned that the jury may not have, you know, I guess, been compliant [sic] or what have you to a black teenager in all this and they would necessarily find these guards not guilty. And there was some controversy about that.
Oh, so that's "the only racial component". Just that white jurors wouldn't be "compliant" [sympathetic?] to a black teenager and as a result would "necessarily" acquit the guards. Glad Lemon cleared that up.
Studio Set Suggestion to CNN: Lose that girder visible behind Candiotti. You might be shooting for a found-art, techy look, but it makes it seem as if . . . cartoon bubbles are coming out of the mouth of the person sitting in Susan's seat.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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it only jury
October 12, 2007 - 15:31 ET by TOEit only jury nullification.
so what.
So what?
October 12, 2007 - 18:41 ET by m4ster chiefso sometime jury nullification ain't no bad thang.
I was watching (no sound)
October 12, 2007 - 16:01 ET by kdoliverI was watching (no sound) while I was getting my car washed today. You could tell just by the body language and the captions that CNN was not happy with the outcome.
http://thelazytriathlete.blogspot.com/
You might say, then, that
October 12, 2007 - 16:05 ET by Mark FinkelsteinYou might say, then, that "there's no sound on the CNN tape, but it just sort of screams at you" ;-)
If the footage shown by CNN
October 12, 2007 - 16:15 ET by scamoramaIf the footage shown by CNN is the only evidence, I'm not surprised that a jury would vote to acquit. There's nothing there.
Reasonable doubt?
October 13, 2007 - 09:06 ET by nkviking75The defense claimed a rare blood disorder (see 6th paragraph in linked article) contributed to the victim's death. Maybe what has happened here is that the jury voted to acquit because they did not believe the charge was proved beyond a reasonable doubt, as is required. A vote to acquit is not necessarily a vote approving the actions of the defendant.
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
Indeed
October 13, 2007 - 09:10 ET by sarcasmoThis case already effectively-ended Florida's "Boot camp" system, so presumably these people would normally be out of jobs. Since they're government employees, though, getting them fired even in a case of a kid's death is somewhere between difficult and impossible, so Florida taxpayers are probably still-paying if my guess is right.
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
Wrongful death lawsuit
October 13, 2007 - 09:14 ET by nkviking75I expect a wrongful death lawsuit any day.
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
Yes, and the state should settle
October 13, 2007 - 09:19 ET by sarcasmoUnless they want that tape in front of a jury with massively-different instructions. A friend of mine is currently incarcerated in northern Florida, and (as with public school teachers who fail) I'd feel better if there were any chance they could have gotten fired/demoted over this.
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.
If either the prosecution
October 13, 2007 - 17:16 ET by MikeBIf either the prosecution or defense thought that racial makeup of the jury would be a problem, either one could have challenged individuals in that particular jury pool. Would Commie News Network have been satisfied if the verdict had been the same with a 10% black jury? How about 50% black? Could it be that the prosecution's case was weak or non-existent? Every liberal "knows" that the Duke LaCrosse players got away with rape, even though the State's attorney general determined that the charges were unwarranted. Ooooh! White prison guards and a poor little black thug. Why, obviously those guards are guilty of something! Why, I'll bet one of their ancestors may have owned one of the thug's ancestors over 100 years ago. That makes them guilty of something, surely.
The jury, after listening to the evidence (which none of us here heard), have pronounced the guards not guilty. Deal with it.
At least they listened to the evidence, which is more than can be said of the Senate when they were supposed to try William Jefferson Clinton after he had been impeached.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan